The Red Canary
by Ballycastle-Bat
Summary: [Barry Allen x Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance x Tommy Merlyn] Barry Allen, forensic scientist for the SCPD spent his whole life chasing the impossible. However, his current fixation, he learns is not quite so impossible. Due to his meddling, he ends up as an ally to the city's vigilante. There's just one problem: they have a complicated history.


[Notes: This is a long fic I started a while ago, I hope you enjoy! Thanks to my sensitivity reader for the exchange between Barry and Laurel towards the end. I'm not used to uploading on ffnet, I always feel like I don't add enough info about the fic, so _please_ don't hesitate to leave a comment/review asking for more info, I'd be more than happy to add it here.

AU: Barry Allen raised by the Lances.

Warnings: Different per chapter. Chapter 1: grief and loss brief mentions of racial profiling/racism.

Spoilers/Timeline: Spoilers for s1 of Arrow

Romantic Pairing(s): Almost all romantic canon pairings will be touched on, Oliver Queen x Laurel Lance, Oliver Queen x Sara Lance, Eddie Thawne x Iris West. Endgame ships are Eddiex Iris, Barry x Oliver and Laurel x Tommy.

The characters briefly mentioned by Laurel in canon Ray and Jean were turned into OCs for this fic, and together.

Platonic Pairings: Barry Allen Iris West, Barry Allen Laurel Lance, Barry Allen Sara Lance, Barry Allen Tommy Merln.

Warnings: This fic does have violence and drug discussion, guns etc.

In case anyone has squicks, Barry is noted to having had past crushes on Tommy Merlyn, Ray, and Danny De Le Vega at some point in his childhood to early adulthood.

Tropes: Enimies to friends to lovers, found family, etc.]

"Barry, look, I love you but this really isn't a good time," At CRN, Laurel didn't even glance up at her adopted brother as she quickly tried to finish a file she was working on.

It was the same as any other day, really.

"But I brought lunch," Barry informed her gleefully. His motives weren't entirely pure though. He had seen the news recently that her former boyfriend Oliver Queen had been found after five years cast away with their sister.

She paused and glanced up at him. "Pad Thai?" she raised a eyebrow.

"Of course! What kind of brother would I be if I didn't bring your favourite?" he grinned at her and she felt just a tiny bit better about that week.

"Thanks Barr," she stopped and her eyes were focused on a spot behind him.

He turned and saw Tommy Merlyn, a usual sight. Nothing out of the ordinary there. He knew they were hanging out, what the extent of that was though, Laurel didn't tell. So Barry did not ask. He stared in confusion until he saw the blond beside him. Oliver Queen. His insides plummeted and the muscles in his hands contracted, skin stretched tight over white knuckles. Barry couldn't even find his voice as Oliver carefully approached.

He thought he had dealt with this. This anger, that hole in his chest that ripped open when he thought about Sara. He was proved wrong when Oliver spoke. To Laurel. To his sister. Who does he think he is? Barry gaped inwardly, or so he'd hoped. The boy had a terrible poker face.

"Hello, Laurel." Oliver said carefully.

Barry made a barrier between them with his body, his mouth drying up in the process. He looked Oliver in the face. He looked … different. There was something different in his eyes, but he was still Oliver, that was certain.

"New boyfriend? He's young." Oliver's tone was light and detached but his face scrunched up slightly.

"Did you get amnesia on the Island?" Laurel spoke up. "That's Barry.You saw him like every other day for several years."

"Ah, CSI Allen," he offered a hand to shake, but it was ignored. He looked around him to Laurel. "Can I see you for a moment?"

Barry turned slightly to face her. "You don't owe him anything ."

"I know. It's fine," she glanced at Oliver. "Sure, Oliver let's take a walk," she stood and gently pressed a hand to Barry's shoulder. A silent request for him to fall back. She could handle this, or she thought she could. She would let him talk, maybe.

His shoulders unsquared and Oliver gave him a look that was -- remorseful? He couldn't be sure, but it wasn't a look he could say he had ever seen Oliver bear. He also seemed muted, this wasn't the same air Oliver Queen had when he left.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to contain himself. When he calmed down from his anger at seeing his face, he remembered that the man was a castaway for the last five years. He may not have returned the same person. Not that it wiped his slate clean, but it did change things.

Oliver paid for his recklessness and selfishness with five years of hell. There very well have been nothing left of Oliver for his family to hate. Part of that scared him. Oliver had aided in tearing his family apart, and he wanted to tell Oliver that. Take it out on him, but he knew it would do nothing. What would he do? Scream at Oliver in the middle of this law firm and risk triggering something inside him? As someone with trauma himself, Barry refused to consider that. Even Oliver Queen didn't deserve that.

He exhaled sharply and crossed his arms. "You alright, Barr?" it was Tommy who spoke now, trying to meet his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm great. What do you think, Tommy?" he glared at the floor.

"Hey, how about you and me go get drinks? You're twenty-one now, right? We could go, just us! We never hang out."

"I don't want or need your pity, Tommy."

"Hey, pity parties are my least favourite kind of parties!" Tommy nudged his arm but Barry didn't respond in the way the dark haired man was expecting.

"Okay, I get it, you're mad. I'll just go stop Laurel from murdering Oliver. She's a great Lawyer, I'm certain she could get away with it," he winked, but hastened his leave when Barry didn't respond to him.

When Laurel returned Barry was by her side. "What did he want?" the words passed his lips before she could cut him off.

"I don't know, Oliver Queen mind games? It doesn't matter. You said you had Pad Thai?" She shifted the topic quickly.

"Yeah."

"Let's go back to my place and eat." Laurel suggested.

Back at Laurel's apartment, Barry grabbed a couple plates from the cabinet. "We don't get together often enough." He set one down beside her along with a fork before going to set up his own lunch.

"We have dinner with dad all the time." Laurel curved that statement around a piece of shrimp. "Well, when I can drag you there."

"Yeah, but I mean we don't hang out."

"Well, you're always off chasing werewolves … or mermaids? What was it this week?" she stood and .

"I was looking into bigfoot sightings up north." He corrected her, but when he met her gaze he could see her smirk. "Hey! These were some serious sightings this time!"

"Alright, whatever you say. I need a distraction, so go on."

"You're tuning out." Barry frowned when he realised she wasn't listening.

Laurel came back to herself at his words. "Huh? Oh, no I love hearing about your Yeti hunt."

"Bigfoot." He corrected with a sigh.

"Right! Bigfoot … I was just thinking about when you first came to live with us."

"Thinking about how you never would have expected me to turn out this weird?" With a laugh he stood to bring his dirty plate to the sink.

"You say that like I don't love that about you." she rolled her eyes and took another sip of her wine, smacking his arm as he passed.

[October, 2001]

Quinten Lance called both of his daughters into the living room. It was the afternoon on a Saturday so he was blessed that they were both home. Even more blessed that Laurel wasn't off with her accursed boyfriend Oliver.

The two girls sat down in the living room, Laurel running a hand through her hair and shaking it out at the ends. "What's up, dad?"

Sara sat quietly next to her, not really saying anything.

"Barry is arriving next weekend and I want both of you to to be on your best behavior, he's been through a lot in the last year," Quinton put his hands on their shoulders gently. "I need you to be the sweet

girls I know you are."

"This is the boy we knew in Central city?" Laurel remembered him the most clearly. He was one of the happiest kids she had ever met. He was always so excited to drag her around his backyard. She explained to him what every single bug they found was. "Isn't his mom one of mom's college friends?"

"She was, yes," Quinten sighed. "Nora Allen was a wonderful woman."

Laurel frowned. "What happened to Mrs Allen?" she had distinct memories of helping Mrs. Allen bake cookies many years ago.

"Um," he folded his hands together. "She died, sweetie."

"What happened?"

He glanced at Sara for a moment, he was trying to decide if he should say anything in front of the fourteen year old. However, he decided that they would find the darkness in the world soon enough. "She was killed by Mr. Allen, that's why Barry's coming to live with us." there was no use in hiding it from them, anyway. They're still so young, Quinton thought, but it wasn't as if he could keep it a secret once Barry was there.

"What? Oh my god," Laurel covered his mouth in a mixture of shock and disgust. She needed a few minutes to process this information. She couldn't imagine Henry Allen hurting _anyone_. She could still remember him talking about his Hippocratic oath when she talked about wanting a job that helped people. Sara hadn't said anything so Laurel wrapped an arm around her.

When their mother arrived with Barry, he was glued to Dinah, having no intentions of pulling away from her. Not even when Laurel addressed him. "Hey, Barry, do you remember me?" she leaned down slightly so she was more his height. "When you were really little you showed me all the different bugs in your backyard."

Barry nodded once, but didn't form a response otherwise. He didn't even make eye contact. Surprisingly, it was Sara who stepped forward and offered her hand to him. "I'll help you get settled in. You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to. I don't like talking either."

Barry glanced up at Dinah who nodded in encouragement. "You can go with her if you want, Barry. It's okay."

Barry took Sara's hand in his and she lead him down to the guest room, Laurel grabbed his bag from her mother. "We got it," Laurel smiled a little and hugged her mother.

The guest room was small, but Barry didn't care. He didn't want to be there anyway, the size of the room wouldn't change that. He sat on the bed and pulled his knees into his chest.

Sara stepped forward. "It's going to be okay, Barry," she said softly.

Laurel sat on his other side and put an arm around his shoulders. "You'll settle in in no time at all and we'll have tons of fun together, okay?"

"I want to stay with Joe and Iris," he was insistent. He didn't want to be there. The only thing that got him on the train was encouragement from Joe. "I'm afraid of the dark."

"I'm sure you do," Sara spoke now. "but how's this, I'll sit with you and hold your hand until you fall asleep?"

Barry agreed reluctantly. He didn't like this. He wanted to go back to Central City. He wanted to be home. He let her hold his hand and eventually fell asleep.

**[Present]**

"I wasn't going to ask, but … are you okay?" Barry asked once he took Laurel's plate to the sink as well.

"I'm fine." She insisted. "Why wouldn't I be fine?"

"It's okay if you're not."

"I don't want to talk about this." She threw away the take out boxes. "I've given Oliver Queen too much of my energy for one day. What are you doing this week?"

"Alright," he stuffed his hands into his pockets, leaning back against the sink. "Nothing really. This was my only 'day off' this week. There was another shooting in the glades this morning though, so I had to go look at that, I left the scene to bring you lunch."

Normally, Laurel would make a joke about whether he'd washed his hands before bringing her lunch. Today she held her tongue. "I think dad mentioned that when he called me this morning." Laurel commented, running a hand through her hair. "He said they think it's gang related."

"Gang related." he sighed. "That's like a buzz term here."

"Of course. What do you think it was? A vampire?" Laurel raised her eyebrows at him.

"I'm just side eyeing that whenever they find a person of colour dead in the glades the first theory is gang related. Even in the news. _We have no information but we suspect gang activity_. We have some less than favourable areas in Central too but I don't remember the news calling 'gang related' nearly as much. Maybe there is a lot of gang activity, but I'm not going to dismiss it until we actually have a proper look at the scene."

"I don't follow?" Laurel frowned.

"When Tommy's mother was murdered Joe saw it on the news in _Central City_." Barry began to elaborate. "but kids die in the Glades every day. The most they get on a good day is that same ten second spiel about how we have no information yet but it's probably gang related."

"Oh, that's what you were getting at." she sighed. "Yeah, I represented a mother who wanted the death of her son investigated."

Barry ran a hand over his hair. "Anyway, if I agree to that lunch with Joanna you want if you stop trying to set me up with her." Barry had more of an interest in her brother, Danny, but he wasn't about to tell Laurel that.

"Oh it's the girlfriend." Laurel shook her head airly, her tone upturned slightly.

"I don't have a girlfriend." Barry grumbled.

Iris: Worst day. Miss your face.

Barry: Want to talk about it when you're off work? At lunch with Laurel … Oliver came by to see her.

Iris: He WHAT? God. Honestly it's just the usual shitty customers. Be with laurel. I love you.

Barry: I'll call you when you're off work.

Barry slid his cellphone away, and returned his attention to Laurel.


End file.
